January 16, 2011
Scripture:
Scripture :
Let’s read a verse or two in John 6. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (vv. 51 - 53). This does not describe what we have done today; but this does describe our eternal salvation. In v. 54, we see our complete salvation: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Our communion is shown in vv. 55 & 56: “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” Finally, we have our dependence on the Lord in v. 57: “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.”
Hymn 352 - Oh, won’t you come to Jesus while your young.
Prayer
1 Samuel 17:38 - 51
Today, we are going to continue with the story of David and Goliath. As read before, Goliath was a lot taller than David. So, David told King Saul that he was going to fight Goliath. David had fought a lion and a bear; he knew that God would give him the strength he would need to fight the giant.
Vv. 38 & 39: Saul thought that if David was going to fight Goliath, he was going to need some armour. Previously, we’ve talked about the armour that Goliath was wearing. Saul gave David his very own of armour, but David took it off. He was not going to rely on it, because he believed God would be with him. All David took was his staff, which gave him some support and a sling, which is a pocket with two straps coming off it, for flinging the stones.
Vv. 40 & 41: Then David went to the brook and found five smooth stones. God had prepared those stones for this work. The water in the brook could be a picture of God’s word: each of us can be made smooth and ready to work for the Lord if we are reading His word regularly.
Goliath had a lot of armour: he had a spear, a sword, and a man carrying his shield. David had put his faith in the Lord and knew that He was his shield (read Psalm 28:7).
Vv. 42 - 44 As David got closer to Goliath, Goliath looked at him and laughed at his size. He told David that he would kill him and feed his flesh to the fowls of the air.
Vv. 45 - 47: David told Goliath that he was coming in the name of the Lord. As in the Psalm we read, David knew that the Lord was his shield. We see that David’s faith made him fearless when meeting Goliath.
Vv. 48 - 51: David put his hand into his bag and pulled out a stone. He put it into the sling and swung it around. Then, David slung it. The stone sailed toward Goliath and hit him right in the forehead. Goliath fell to the ground. David didn’t have any sword, so he ran and took Goliath’s sword and cut off his head.
How beautiful David’s faith was: he had no fear when fighting the giant. May we each have faith like that.
In the last chapter we read of the promised coming of John the Baptist, and in this chapter we get the next promised baby: Jesus. But before it gives us that, we get the setting. Again we are reminded that Rome is the ruling power. This taxation, or census, that we read of seems to have been started sometime earlier, but had gotten delayed. People were told to go to the towns or cities where they had been born, so that they could be taxed. Joseph probably didn’t think that this was the best time to be traveling, with Mary well into her pregnancy. But they had to go, even if it wasn’t the smoothest traveling. God was using this census to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the birth of His Son. Why was that important? Because it had been prophesied long ago that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem.
In the first chapter of Luke, heaven is seen to be very active; we have visits from angels and people being filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t at all like this in Malachi, where there was so much stagnation. So the first chapter was amazing, but at the beginning of the second chapter we are reminded that the world was under the rule of Rome. Men weren’t the masters of their own homes, they had to do what the foreign powers told them to do. Still, God’s hand was directing, as He brought Him Who would be the “Bread of Life” (Jesus) to the “House of Bread” (Bethlehem). God directs the affairs of men to accomplish His will. “Man proposes, but God disposes”, as the saying goes. God tells us what will happen, but He often doesn’t say how, or when. He has told us that He’s coming; and though we don’t know when, things sometimes make us think that it will be soon.
While they were at Bethlehem, Mary had her baby. Jesus was born in the same way that all of us were. And not only that, but He was also laid in a manger. The King of kings, the Lord of lords, was laid in a manger.
When we were born, we were brand new people. But this is something amazing. Here, this was a Person that had been around long before; One Who had created the world, and is the owner of it. In that form He could create, but He couldn’t redeem. To do that, He had to enter human ranks.
In the Old Testament, the Lord appeared to a few people. He was manifested to Jacob, and visited Abraham. He could have come that way - just appeared - but He didn’t. He chose to arrive just the way we do; ‘Born of a woman’ as Galatians puts it. He became part of the race that had it’s beginnings in Eden, and has fallen so far. The difference is that He was born of woman, but not begotten of man. This is the awesomeness of the incarnation; it’s God in human form.
The Scriptures tell us that Christ was, “Seen of angels”. It appears that God the Father and God the Son weren’t visible to them before this. So now the angels come to peer at their God. How much more should we look into the things of Christ? They should mean more to us than to angels.
The incarnation is like the story of the brazen serpent. It wasn’t a serpent, but it was made in the likeness of one, and was raised on a pole to save guilty people. Jesus was made in our likeness, and raised on a cross for our salvation.
“There was no room for them in the inn”. This world has no room for the Saviour. However, this can also serve to remind us that, like in the parable of the wedding supper in Luke 14, that “Yet there is room”. The Father wasn’t inviting those guests to his shed, or garden; but into his house. We are - or will be - brought right into Heaven.
The message of the Lord’s birth comes to shepherds at night. This world was dark when our Saviour arrived. He was the light of it. We’ve been thinking of David’s story, and how it wasn’t the great Sauls or Eliabs that were used, but the least likely of all: David the shepherd boy. In Matthew we find that the great men didn’t know where Jesus was; but that the shepherd’s did, and they were there worshiping.
This is one of the great events of history; when God visited the planet.
Hymn 92 - Have you any room for Jesus
Prayer